© 2024 KALW 91.7 FM Bay Area
KALW Public Media / 91.7 FM Bay Area
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Your Call

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis's history & race policies force Professors to cancel or change their classes

On this edition of Your Call, we discuss Florida's so-called Stop W.O.K.E. Act, which restricts how race is discussed in schools, colleges, and workplaces.

The law prohibits teachings that could make students feel they bear personal responsibility for historic wrongs because of their race, color, sex or national origin, according to the Tallahassee Democrat. The law also blocks businesses from using diversity practices or training that could make employees feel guilty for similar reasons.

Governor Ron DeSantis is also moving to ban a new AP African American Studies course for high schoolers, arguing the course "lacks educational value" and violates state law.

During the 2022 legislative session, state lawmakers across the country proposed 137 bills restricting classroom conversations and staff training about race, racism, gender identity, and sexual orientation in K-12 schools, marking a 250 percent increase since 2021, according toa report from PEN America.

How are these bans affecting educators and students and how are they responding?

Guests:

Dr. Jonathan Cox, race scholar and assistant professor of Sociology at the University of Central Florida

Dr. Shantel Buggs, assistant professor of Sociology and African American Studies at Florida State University

Web Resources:

Pen America: Educational Gag Orders

ProPublica: Muzzled by DeSantis, Critical Race Theory Professors Cancel Courses or Modify Their Teaching

The Atlantic:'It's making us more ignorant'

The Texas Tribune: Texas teachers say GOP’s new social studies law will hinder how an entire generation understands race, history and current events

CNN: College Board hits back at Florida’s initial rejection of AP African American Studies course and admits it made mistakes in rollout

USA Today: Florida rejected AP African American Studies. Here's what's actually being taught in the course

The New York Times: The College Board’s Rocky Path, Through Florida, to the A.P. Black Studies Course

Rose Aguilar has been the host of Your Call since 2006. She became a regular media roundtable guest in 2001. In 2019, the San Francisco Press Club named Your Call the best public affairs program. In 2017, The Nation named it the most valuable local radio show.
Bee Soll is a producer with Your Call at KALW, and a producer, writer, and editor at KCBS Radio in San Francisco. She is a former reporter for Crosscurrents and contributor at KPFA Radio.